How One Family’s Favorite Meal Came During a Rough Time

Do you have a favorite family recipe? One that brings back memories of home?

Maybe you were one of those kids who, on cold and blustery winter days, after walking home from school, opened the door and the smell of banana bread would be wafting through the house. You felt very loved in that moment.

For Sonya, a mom in a Housing Families’ program, her favorite family recipe was cobbled together during a difficult time.

Domestic violence has caused Sonya to experience housing instability for a long time. To protect her children, she had to move them away from their friends and away from their home.

Although Housing Families’ shelter was not home as they knew it, it was a safe refuge.

After she escaped an abusive relationship, Sonya and her children were facing the holidays alone. She gathered what limited food she had in the refrigerator
and while hiding back tears prepared macaroni and cheese – what she felt was a “terrible holiday meal.” As she served this meal to her children, feelings of guilt and sadness overtook Sonya. She felt “like the worst mother in the world” serving her children macaroni and cheese for their holiday meal.
She felt she had failed her children as a mom.

Sonya was surprised when both of her children exclaimed how delicious the meal was. They loved it. She realized in that moment that the magic of the holidays is being together in a safe, warm home.

Sonya and her family are now safe, and the meal she thought was a “terrible holiday meal” is now the most requested dish at every birthday party, holiday event and family celebration.